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Creatures
Aurelia (both the city proper and the surrounding wastelands) are home to a variety of interesting life forms--sentient and non-sentient, beautiful and terrifying, pristine and dissipate. Here are a few key types: Humans (Inside the City) Aurelia's primary residents are human, and divide themselves across a plethora of social class, job and gender distinctions. One of Aurelia's many challenges is its socially-segregated nature. The wealthy keep to the expansive, beautifully-manicured upper strata, where their needs are met by an army of servants. The smaller middle class inhabit the "lower upper" strata. Working as merchants, skilled tradesmen, and others with decent education and modest means, these Aurelians serve the needs of the noble classes through "genteel" means, without resorting to "menial" labor. The majority of Aurelians, however, are poor inhabitants of the lower strata who spend their lives in hot, dangerous, and filthy factories, as well as the city's extensive boiler system and other necessary but unpleasant infrastructures. Considerable friction exists between the bottom of the city and the top, as one might expect. Insurgents such as Julia Ettaine rise periodically to attempt to free the masses and achieve equality (of social class, gender, etc.) but thus far have failed to achieve their ends. Kiega (Inside the City) The kiega were the original inhabitants of the mountain. Human-like in their intellect, emotion and desires, the kiega resemble a cross between an albino mole and a small human child. For centuries they enjoyed a rich civilization anchored in the shallow caves that dotted the mountainside. Human contact was rare but positive in the pre-Darkfall world. But post-Darkfall, as humans poured into the caves seeking shelter, the kiega soon found their newfound neighbors did not have their best interest at heart. Sharing real estate with humanity proved too much for these quiet, somewhat timid creatures. Humans' ceaseless quarrels, violent power-jockeying and obsessive construction projects sent them tunneling further into the mountain in search of solace. Now, their infrared-like eyes, claws, and highly-sensitive ears serve them well as they live almost all of their lives underground. Over the centuries they developed a violent allergy to light and rarely venture into the strong glow of the gas lamps on the surface. Most kiega work the garemite mines; others may belong to details tasked with cleaning and caring for the city pipeworks. A few also traverse the city's extensive infrastructure checking for architectural weaknesses or dangerous wear-and-tear that could affect public safety. They dislike contact with humans -- not so much from malicious sentiment as from sheer timidity. Kiega are paid a wage for their work, but with few other career options open to them, and housing restricted to clusters of underground dwellings, they may as well be slaves. The only exception to this rule is Ehlwy, a kiega of legendary stature whose encounter with a Slathringen monster catapulted him into the confidences of King Jude's father Breidan. When King Jude left the city, Ehlwy went bravely with him, out into the Wasteland. As a human resident of Aurelia, you may encounter kiega in the area around the mine entrance or see a few scurrying through the shadows of a back alley here or there. But for the most part, your life will remain wholly separate from these quiet workers in whose paws Aurelia's day-to-day safety rests. Renn (Inside the City) Renn were invented by Aurelian scientists around 609 DF, or approximately six centuries after the city's founding. Innovations in that period's clockwork engineering allowed the city's first machine-enhancements for human life. The technology started as a simple exoskeletal structure to enhance human movement. As time passed, the exoskeleton was permanently attached to humans who served society no other "purpose," so that they could provide their exponentially-increased strength as a "payment" for their social debts. Now, renn are no longer criminals or social outcasts; they are bred especially for this purpose by human parents identified for size and strength. Mothers bearing children for this program are fed special foods and drugs of a highly-secret composition. The result are "super children" who, wehn full grown, stand about twice the size of the average human. At a formative age, they undergo an irreparable surgery which alters their mental faculties to reduce emotion and while boosting compliance and violent tendencies. Their bodies are then bolted into a Steampunk exoskeleton, and one eye and one arm are replaced with mechanical components. Because their bodies become dependent on the movement and strength of the exoskeleton, their muscles atrophy. Wounds often fester around the areas where the exoskeleton has been sunk into the skin and bolted around their bones. Renn are unmatched for strength and power, but their apparatus-dependent bodies do not move as fast as an unencumbered, healthy human. Defeating them or senaking past their defenses requires considerable stealth, fleet-footedness, and an ability to hit very small targets (eyes, critical joints and mechanical parts, etc.) even while those targets are moving . . . in the dark. As a result, renn are rarely defeated in a fight, although exceptions (such as King Jude's battle, depicted below) do exist. Mutants (Inside the City) Throughout Aurelia's history, human mutation experiments have been a great focus (and source of controversy) for Aurelian scientists. Rumors fly up and down the city, speculating on the nature and location of these experiments, and whether any of them exist. (After all, in a city built around a mountain, multiple chambers could exist inside the peak itself, underground, or some other chilling locale, where twisted pariahs live out their miserable lives in menial labor or under monotonous scientific observation. In the Aurelia show, we haven't seen any examples yet ... but we expect them to surface soon! Q'adax (Inside the City) As a group, q'adax (pronounced "cha-daks") refers to mechanical animals, built to serve as fully-controllable beasts of burden, companions, and weapons of subterfuge throughout the city. Aurelia's grazing grounds and food sources are precious, limited, and highly-controlled; therefore most "real" animals live inside the mountain--subterranean-dwelling creatures bred for food. Mechanical animals serve all other purposes above ground. Among the more exotic examples of q'adax are the mechanical tigers who battle convicts in Aurelia's Roman-style arena, and the wolf-like q'adax who prowl many a noble garden in search of intruders. Q'adax are said to be modeled after the beautiful creatures who roamed the world before Darkfall; of course, for the average modern Aurelian, this amounts to ten centuries of hearsay. No living Aurelian has seen a live, above ground-dwelling beast ... except for the Serpent Goddess, of course. The Fallen (Outside the City) While the Fallen aren't exactly ghosts they certainly are the bogey man of Aurelia, where stories are often fabricated of how horrible they are told to children to frighten them into acquiescence. The Fallen once were not as they are now. They once were of the Chosen but during the Rebellion of Navaris, they chose to follow Navaris, and because of it they were left behind by the Chosen when the others fled with the Tree which provided Shakna. Because of their political affiliation the Fallen were quickly pushed out of the fledgling Aurelian society when the Darkness fell, leaving them trapped in the Wastes. Because of their nature as Chosen, when the Chaos consumed them they did not die, rather they maintained just enough magic to remain in a middle state of life within death, though only physically. They appear as rotting corpses but they aren't really half-dead. They just appear so, cursed forever to dwell between the state of decay and life, seeking to one day enter Aurelia. The Fallen live within small caravan-like communities, almost gypsy-like in structure and is rare that they will ever be found alone. Should one be unfortunate enough to come across a Fallen, it is highly likely the rest of it's community are nearby Their state of "decomposition" varies and thus, they can often be mistook for undead, ranging from zombie-like in appearance to a hideous lich-like state. Their mere appearance is enough to make even the most stalwart tremble. Bothzar (Outside the City) Aurelia's Wasteland may be toxic, but it still plays host to a teeming variety of creatures. Or rather, monsters. The Aurelians call these monsters bothzar: unnatural ones. It is generally thought that the bothzar were once beautiful and docile creatures who (over the centuries, and probably under influence of the environmental toxins) slowly devolved into shadows of their former selves. Bothzar can take any variety of forms, shapes and degrees of repulsiveness. In general, one might think of them as creatures who were once animals from our world but now have mutated into pure nightmares. Scientists throughout Aurelia closely guard whatever specimens of bothzar their labs may have managed to obtain. Often, the method of receipt is a closely-guarded (and dark) secret. Because of these specimens, Aurelians have a general idea of the sort of terrors that lurk outside their walls, especially because these specimens are often exhibited or otherwise displayed publicly to strike fear in the hearts of citizens and encourage political conformity. (ie: "If you don't obey the Council, you'll find yourself cast out into the wilderness with the bothzar!") Separating bothzar lore from bothzar fact is quite difficult, given that specimens are dead already when they are brought into the city by the intrepid few who venture out into the Wasteland--only for brief periods--in protective suits. Some claim that a few live bothzar are kept in the deepest jails for purposes of torture. Bu that's not exactly verifiable without incurring a life sentence one's self...